It probably could have come from anyone who watched the cable network’s weekly “24/7: Road to the Winter Classic” series over the past month, an all-access documentary about the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals leading up to their New Year’s Day outdoor game at Heinz Field.

“HBO has told me that they were extraordinarily pleased with `24/7′ and they would be interested in doing it again in the future,” Bettman said. “When I say in the future, certainly for another Winter Classic. We haven’t discussed anything else. They believe the access that they got was unprecedented, particularly because it was the regular season and it was two teams.”

Its access and aesthetics aside, the series succeeded in large part because of the personalities of its actors.

On Sunday, Bettman basked in the success of the series, and the game, in front of a crowd of reporters at Honda Center. The night before, he joined a local group of hockey personalities as the Ducks celebrated the retirement of former captain Scott Niedermayer.

Since the commissioner knows hockey is alive and well on the West Coast, when will one of the local NHL teams get to host a Winter Classic game?

“It’s not anything that we’ve yet focused on, as has been our history,” Bettman said. “We do one Winter Classic, we take a deep breath, we let everybody recover and then we figure out what we’re going to do next.

“We have another outdoor game coming on February 20, so we actually have to get through that one before we focus on the next game. Calgary is hosting Montreal in the Heritage Classic and we have a network negotiation to have as well. There are a variety of things that we really need to do before we start thinking about next year.”

In other words, the Winter Classic seems no closer to coming here than it did last April, when the commissioner first addressed the topic prior to a playoff game between the Kings and Vancouver Canucks.

“I never assumed that anybody was serious or there would really be an opportunity to do it,” Bettman said at the time.

The Penguins have participated in two of the four outdoor games, while the Capitals, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings have all played in one.

In the meantime, many in Southern California have fantasized which field would look best with a sheet of ice covering its grass – Dodger Stadium? Angel Stadium? Los Angeles Coliseum? The Home Depot Center?

A more likely possibility, based on Bettman’s response, would see one of the local teams travel northeast.

“The possibility of teams that for weather reasons might not come to mind as your first choice to host the event get considered for the possibility of participating as a visiting team,” he said.

Weather – the most obvious barrier to playing hockey outdoors in California – pushed the established limits at this year’s game. The game-time temperature at Heinz Field was 51.7 degrees and a light rain pelted the ice in the third period. That’s not ideal hockey weather, but no significant injuries were attributed to the on-ice conditions.

By comparison, it wasn’t raining in downtown Los Angeles that day. The average temperature, according to the National Weather Service, was 52 degrees.

Bettman said he travels to California “three or four times a year.” So long as he picks the right day, maybe a California Winter Classic won’t seem like a total fantasy.